JG 26 on 31th December 1942

[WojciechZ]

Hello,

on 31th December 1942 5./JG 26 made a claim against a Spitfire which must have belonged to no. 306 Polish Fighter Squadron. In famous Donald Caldwell's JG26 War Diary vol. 1 I found very brief description of this combat: "Oblt. Wutz Galland's 5th Staffel spotted the Spitfires of No. 306 Squadron through a break in the clouds and made a successful bounce. Two of the Polish Spitfires went down although only one was claimed." These two pilots were F/Lt Jozef Gil and P/O Leon Kosmowski.

I am doing a research for the biography of one of killed pilots, P/O Leon Kosmowski and thus I would like to ask some Luftwaffe history experts the following questions:

1. Is there any information available elsewhere about details of this combat (description, combat report)?

2. It seems that there were two groups of Fw 190s fighting against no. 306 squadron. One group which was attacked by Polish, and another one which attacked the Polish when they were leaving France. Can it be confirmed based on German records? If so, to which group Oblt. Galland belonged?

3. Is there any information available about any damage to Fw 190? As far as I understand, there were no casualties (no killed or missing pilots and no 100% damage to aircraft), but what about damaged planes?

Thanks in advance for any hints or comments.
Wojciech

[Laurent Rizzotti]

According to the Summary of Luftwaffe losses, no German fighter was lost or seriously damaged (>= 10% damage) on this day in the West.

[Chris Goss]

The Luftwaffe report just states that at 1445 hrs, a Spitfire was shot down NW of the Somme Estuary and that there were no Luftwaffe casualties. For the day it summarises that 59 aircraft were scrambled a total of 6 times.

[WojciechZ]

Thank you both very much.
Could you tell me the exact source of such information (like a reference to German records etc.)?

If the Luftwaffe reports are so brief, do you have any idea based on which sources D. Caldwell stated that the attack was done in such way: "through a break in the clouds and made a successful bounce"? I think such sentence suggests a quick attack and retreat...?

[Chris Goss]

My source is the Einzelmeldung & you would have to ask Don Caldwell as to his source